The Deep Edge Podcast
The Deep Edge Podcast discusses technologies powering a cloud-native, fully connected world: Virtual and physical compute; virtual and physical networking; orchestration; mobile/wireless, wired; Internet of things; NFV; SDN; routing and switching; optical; cable; and hyper-scalers. We deliver the skills, insights, and materials to help our subscribers master their own transformations.
The Deep Edge Podcast
Optical Is the Foundation of AI: Why Light Is the Real AI Infrastructure Bottleneck I Ep: 74
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For the last two years, the AI infrastructure conversation has been dominated by GPUs. But as AI clusters scale to tens of thousands — and eventually hundreds of thousands — of GPUs, the real bottleneck is shifting.
The next AI infrastructure challenge is not just compute.
It is interconnect.
In this episode of The Deep Edge Podcast, Ray Mota breaks down why optical networking is becoming the foundation of AI data centers. From 800G and 1.6T optics to Linear Pluggable Optics, Co-Packaged Optics, Optical Circuit Switching, and silicon photonics, the future of AI depends on how fast, efficiently, and reliably GPUs can communicate.
A GPU waiting on data is stranded capital.
And optical is what keeps the AI factory moving.
Topics covered:
- Why copper is reaching its physical limits
- Why AI clusters need massive east-west bandwidth
- The role of 800G and 1.6T optics
- Linear Pluggable Optics and Co-Packaged Optics
- Optical Circuit Switching and flatter AI networks
- Why optical efficiency directly impacts AI economics
- Why light, not just compute, will define the next AI buildout
Key takeaway:
Compute gets the headlines, but optical holds the AI factory together.